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REPUBLICAN PRESS RELEASE

March 9, 2007

Hearing on seamless transition of veterans shows continued DoD foot-dragging

Washington, D.C. — More than five years after the start of Operation Enduring Freedom and after two decades of congressional pressure, a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee today learned that little substantive progress has been made to ensure returning veterans a seamless transition between the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“A Government Accountability Office report prepared for this subcommittee on July 30, 2006, found that VA has taken aggressive actions to provide timely information to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom servicemembers and their families,” said subcommittee Ranking Member Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.). “The report also found that VA continues to have problems accessing real-time medical information from the military health care system.”

The director of the Tampa VA polytrauma center, Dr. Steven Scott, told of challenges his staff faces getting timely access from the military to the full range of medical information on active duty servicemembers being treated at his facility. He called the process “complex” and emphasized the importance of access to all information.

The GAO’s health care director, Cynthia Bascetta, told the subcommittee that, while VA has improved its operations, delays in the start of rehabilitation caused by the Pentagon can impair the progress of patients. These delays in many cases can’t be made up and can cause lasting problems, she said. VA must be given access to patients earlier to begin rehabilitation.

“It is evident that the seamless transition of DoD patients to the VA is a team effort,” Brown-Waite said. “It is most important that DoD must initiate the transition and ensure all critical medical information and medical treatment must be without error and delivered in a timely manner.”

“Showing he gets it, VA Secretary Nicholson has announced the immediate hiring of 100 patient advocates who are themselves veterans. Their mission is to cut red tape and help returning servicemembers get VA care,” House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) said. “VA is also expanding its polytrauma rehabilitation centers and screening all patients who are combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan for traumatic brain injury.”

“I call on Defense Secretary Gates and his under secretary for personnel and readiness, Dr. David Chu, to also show leadership on this issue,” Buyer said.

Earlier this week, VA Secretary Nicholson directed the hiring of 400 new claims developers by July to ensure that the disability and compensation claims of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans get top priority.

“Unlike the Pentagon’s plodding, bureaucratic response, VA is moving decisively forward to expedite benefits claims of OIF and OEF veterans,” Buyer said. “This is what our veterans deserve.”

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Larry Scott

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